Alberta Trade Non-Fiction Book Award nominee 2008

Seasoned petroleum historian David Finch engages and entertains as he acquaints us with the basic vocabulary and mechanics of Canada’s oil industry right through its most complex issues.

Perhaps you know the answers to some of the basics:

What is a barrel of oil? Where does it come from? How does it get into the gas tank? Why is oil so political?

Do you recall the details of some of the programs?

What was the National Energy Program, The National Oil Program, The Western Accord, and why did they matter?

Are you well-versed enough in the politics to know the answers to these questions?

Are we really running out of oil? What is the current state of the tar sands? What do upstream,
midstream, and downstream mean? Who controls oil and gas in Canada and why does it cost so much if it belongs to us, the people of Canada? And finally, Why does this industry dominate the world’s economic and political arenas.

With short chapters, illustrations, maps, photographs, and a user friendly index-glossary, Pumped makes the complicated, jargon rich, high-stakes world of petroleum exploration, excavation, and consumption easy to understand.

Finch provides a balanced, knowledgeable, and often humorous primer on the mechanics, history, and politics of Canada’s oil industry.